In many medical and scientific situations it is extremely important to know when a specimen was collected and/or used. Many times the valuative analysis associated with the use of the specimen will vary with time, and without accurate recognition of the time when the specimen was used the observed results are of limited benefit. For example, in the medical field accurate laboratory tests may involve a series of blood, urine or other specimen collections over a time period. Without recognition of the time in which the specimen was collected laboratory analysis may be impossible because of the incomprehensible and unrelated data. Although the time information may be recorded by the personnel associated with the test, human error often intervenes and results in inaccurately recorded material. Furthermore, in some medical applications the patient himself is required to collect specimens, and this situation is even more prone to result in inaccurately recorded time. Similarly, it is often desirable that a particular specimen be utilized at a particular time so that test data may be collected a predetermined time after use. In order to obtain accurate test data it therefore becomes important to know the time in which the specimen was administered or used. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus which accurately records a time period in which a specimen was collected or otherwise used.
It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus which will eliminate human error in recording the time period at which a specimen was administered or collected.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an apparatus which will greatly aid in the proper analysis of scientific or medical information.